Large share of health budget will go to cancer care, minister announces duty-free treatment equipment

Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain has expressed firm resolve that a huge portion of the country's overall health-sector budget will be spent on improving cancer treatment services. He made the important announcement in his speech as chief guest at a special event titled 'National Cancer Congress 2026', held on Monday morning.

The minister said the lion's share of the total health budget would be allocated to cancer treatment. Whatever needs to be done to prevent the spread of cancer among ordinary people and to stop the disease will be carried out through state initiatives by the government. The clear emphasis, therefore, is on ensuring that no patient's treatment stalls for lack of money.

At the event, the health minister said no delay or administrative complication would be tolerated in installing or removing state-of-the-art machinery for the treatment of cancer patients. Effective steps will also be taken, he said, to completely waive all applicable duties on the import of this life-saving treatment equipment.

If the duty waiver is implemented, hopes were expressed at the event that bringing modern cancer-treatment equipment into hospitals will become easier. Lengthy administrative processes and extra costs often delay the installation of needed machinery, and it is patients who pay the price for that delay. The minister's remarks carried a clear message about untangling that knot.

The health minister has also said earlier that 17 new radiotherapy machines are being installed at various hospitals across the country to make cancer treatment easier and more accessible. Of them, six will be installed at specialised hospitals and medical colleges in Dhaka, and 11 at hospitals outside the capital.

Alongside installing the radiotherapy machines, training activities for the necessary technicians and manpower have already begun, he said. Equipment alone does not benefit patients without skilled staff to operate it — and the training programme is being prioritised to fill exactly that gap.

The minister commented that seventeen long years of fascist rule had severely crippled and held back the country's entire health sector. Against that backdrop, he presented the announcement of a large allocation for a costly and complex disease such as cancer as part of the effort to put the damaged health sector back on its feet.

At the same time, the minister issued a stern warning that no negligence or carelessness in medical services would be tolerated. Anyone who shows even the slightest negligence in performing their duties will not keep their job, he said plainly.

The announcements made at the 'National Cancer Congress 2026' have created high expectations among cancer patients and their families. Cancer treatment in the country is extremely expensive, and many families are ruined meeting its cost — those concerned believe that expanding services in public hospitals would ease that pressure at least somewhat.

The minister said whatever needs to be done to prevent the spread of cancer and to stop the disease will be done through state initiatives. In other words, his remarks indicated that the government is giving equal importance not only to treatment but also to prevention.

Taken together — spending a large share of the budget on cancer care, duty-free equipment, and installing 17 new radiotherapy machines — the three steps could bring a major change to the country's cancer treatment system if they are implemented together.

All eyes are now on implementation. How the allocated money will be spent, at which hospitals and how quickly it will arrive, when the duty waiver takes effect, and when the radiotherapy machines will start serving patients — only the answers to these questions will show the real benefit of the announcement.